California Wives Picking Up the Job Slack

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As this recession robs California of jobs, the state's women are picking up the slack.

It's the sad statistic of the day: The number of California women with children at home who became their family's sole breadwinner rose by 77 percent between 2006 and 2009, according to a new study from the California Budget Project. (Since the study requires a download, check out this Contra Costa Times story on the study here).

The flip side: The Great Recession is a "he-cession," an economic downturn that has hurt men more than women.

While unemployment rates among women moved from 5 to 10 percent during the three years of the study, among men the rate soared from 4.7 percent to 12.3 percent. (Hat tip to Reihan Salam, my colleague at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, who argues in an important essay, "The Death of Macho," that this recession signals the end of the era of male economic dominance).

Published at 10:39 AM PDT on May 12, 2010 | Updated at 7:40 AM PST on Feb 10, 2011